Sunday, August 28, 2005
Pressure To Clean
What took us so long to invest in a pressure washer, I'll never know. But our world, at least as far as cage and carrier cleaning is concerned, changed dramatically for the better when we did.
One thing we did wrong was to fail to read the directions. Specifically, "do not store pressure washer outdoors in freezing weather." We did a better job of storage with our second pressure washer.
Ours is a variable pressure type so that we don't blow the entire cage or carrier away. It is amazing how much pressure comes out of one of those suckers. Ask Andrew to show you the missing patch of skin on his leg sometimes.
The pressure washer does a great job on cage bottoms; poop is no match for it. It does a creditable job on removing fur; fur puts up more of a fight. We still get some tiny bits that hang on, but nothing to be concerned about.
You may want to try a few different ways of propping or positioning trays when you are cleaning them. You don't want them to go flying around and get dented or chipped.
After removing debris with just water, you can run a mixture of bleach and water through to sanitize (not recommended by the manufacturer, but we do it). Wait 20 minutes and then go back to water to rinse.
Andrew uses the pressure washer on an area of pea gravel so that he doesn't end up in a soggy mess. Twice a year, we unhang every cage in the barn and pressure wash them all. In between, we wash cages as needed. We pressure wash our carriers before every show.
Our pressure washer cost about $169 (actually double that because of the freezing accident). It was worth every penny. I highly recommend that you not wait as long as we did.
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry
"Holland Lops of Distinction"
http://www.thenaturetrail.com/
http://www.thenaturetrail.com/blog/BLOG
¶ 7:48 AM
One thing we did wrong was to fail to read the directions. Specifically, "do not store pressure washer outdoors in freezing weather." We did a better job of storage with our second pressure washer.
Ours is a variable pressure type so that we don't blow the entire cage or carrier away. It is amazing how much pressure comes out of one of those suckers. Ask Andrew to show you the missing patch of skin on his leg sometimes.
The pressure washer does a great job on cage bottoms; poop is no match for it. It does a creditable job on removing fur; fur puts up more of a fight. We still get some tiny bits that hang on, but nothing to be concerned about.
You may want to try a few different ways of propping or positioning trays when you are cleaning them. You don't want them to go flying around and get dented or chipped.
After removing debris with just water, you can run a mixture of bleach and water through to sanitize (not recommended by the manufacturer, but we do it). Wait 20 minutes and then go back to water to rinse.
Andrew uses the pressure washer on an area of pea gravel so that he doesn't end up in a soggy mess. Twice a year, we unhang every cage in the barn and pressure wash them all. In between, we wash cages as needed. We pressure wash our carriers before every show.
Our pressure washer cost about $169 (actually double that because of the freezing accident). It was worth every penny. I highly recommend that you not wait as long as we did.
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry
"Holland Lops of Distinction"
http://www.thenaturetrail.com/
http://www.thenaturetrail.com/blog/BLOG
¶ 7:48 AM
